For example, in the case of Psalm 142, David pours out his heart to God.
Once David was king, he had many good experiences as ruler over God’s people, but for a while before he became king, he had some experiences that could be classified as downright abusive. Many times he had to flee for his life. Psalm 142 is his outcry during one of those times.
King Saul had been so Jealous of David that at one point he threw his javelin at David and tried to pin him to the wall.
At the time of this writing we find David hiding in a cave.
We are told that there were two caves David could have been hiding in:
• One was the cave of Engedi. This was the cave Saul had slept in one time when David sneaked in and cut off a piece of his garment, then later let Saul know he could have killed him, but that he would not touch God’s anointed.
• Or he could have been hiding in the cave of Adullam. It is thought this was the most likely hiding place at the time of his writing psalm 142.
At this time David was very sad and discouraged. In that cave he came to the sad conclusion, “...no man cared for my soul.”
That was sad then, and it is sad today. It is sad to live in a world filled with people and still come to the conclusion, “No one really cares if I live or die!”
Many of us, to some degree, can relate to what David was feeling. It is a sad thing to...
Attend public school and feel that no one really cares about you personally. You are just a student, that the government spends thousands of dollars to support, in the public school system.
• It is a sad thing when citizens feel the politicians we elect to represent us in Washington, D.C. do not care about our needs. All they care about is their own profit.
• It is a sad thing to attend a Sunday school class and feel the teacher really does not care about you personally. You are just a number to be reported to the church office.
• It is a sad thing for a child to grow up recognizing that his parents do not really love him.
Let me show you two things from this passage about what David felt that each of us can relate to.
I. NO MAN CARES!
Yes, David felt abandoned; as if he had not a friend in this world. He had loved Saul and Jonathan (I Sam. 19-20). When Saul became jealous and turned on David, David became a fugitive, so in the cave he cried out to God, “...no man cared for my soul.” His soldiers were around him, but evidently he needed more.
Illus: Pastors know the feeling David felt. So often the only time a pastor is wanted is when someone wants something. For example, a family who had only attended church a few times over the years, still would call the preacher when one of them wanted to get married, or if there was a death. All of a sudden the pastor was the best friend that family had. Why? Because they wanted something.
David had done many kind deeds and helped many people, yet when he was writing this psalm he felt as if he did not have a friend in the world. Look at verse 4. We read, “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.” We need to be aware that there are two kind of friends.
A. FAIR WEATHER FRIENDS.
These call themselves our friends, but actually are not true friends at all.
Illus: When David became king and sat on that royal throne, he probably looked on his right and could see multitudes of men who wanted to be his right-hand men. But, then, in that cave, during that very stressful time in David’s life, he felt he had no one who wanted to be his right-hand man. Those were “fair weather” friends.
Illus: Did you know that you may feel all alone, then if someone knocked on your door and announced that you had just won the ten-million-dollar-Reader’s Digest Sweepstakes, you would soon discover you had ten-million friends. Where were all those people before you had that money???
We all have “fair weather” friends who claim to love us and care about us when things are going good, but many of those same people will turn on us when things start going wrong.
Illus: When President Bill Clinton’s popularity was high, we heard the democrats defend him over and over again. But, when they saw that his misconduct with a twenty-one-year-old intern was going to affect them in a negative way those “fair-weather friends” began to disassociate themselves from him, one by one, as fast as they could.
Some canceled his appearance for the 1998 mid-term elections. They said, “We do not need you to come to our town, stay in Washington, D.C.”
Illus: Many of these “fair-weather friends” remind us of a cowboy movie in which two men were trying to win the affection of a beautiful girl. Both men were attractive, but one was “no good.” However, that one knew how to say the right things to her and she began to favor him. Her family and friends tried to warn her he was no good, but the harder they tried, the more determined she was that he was the man she would marry. The movie shows the two of them riding in a horse-drawn buggy across Indian country. He was smiling and she was smiling and it looked as if she had made a wise choice when all of a sudden they heard a commotion behind them. They turned and saw a bunch of renegade Indians coming. In the process of the Indians chasing them, the Indians shot one of the horses drawing the buggy. The man unhooked the other horse, and came to this conclusion: if two ride the horse they would surely be caught and killed. He decided to ditch the girl. He jumped on that horse and sped away, leaving her to face the Indians as she screamed, “Yancey, come back. Don’t leave me! Come back!”
But old Yancey did not go back for her. He decided he did not care who got the girl under those conditions. All he cared about was saving his own hide!
If you want to know how many true friends you have, do not count them while things are going well. Count them when the storms of life come. We all probably would be surprised at how many of our friends are no more than “fair-weather friends”
But there is good news! We all have some...
B. True friends.
When David was in that cave, at that point of his life, he had done nothing to deserve the kind of treatment he was getting.
DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN LIVE A GODLY LIFE AND SOMETIMES STILL SOME OF THE MOST DREADFUL THINGS CAN HAPPEN TO YOU? In fact, trouble will surely come.
The Bible tells us, II Tim. 3:12, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”
It does not say that “some” shall “suffer persecution.” It says that “...ALL that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”
David was a godly man. (This was before he committed that terrible sin with Bathsheba.) The Bible tells us he was a man “AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART.”
In other words, he did not just say that HE LOVED THE LORD, HE REALLY LOVED THE LORD! Again, this thing that was happening to him was not something he had brought upon himself.
This is not always the case. Often we bring our own troubles upon ourselves. And often it is obvious why some folks do not have friends.
Illus: In every church you will find some folks who will visit and will say, “What a friendly church!” Then others will visit who will say, “That is not a friendly church.”
WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE IN WHETHER A PERSON FEELS A CHURCH IS FRIENDLY OR NOT?
We can find one answer in Proverbs. Proverb 18:24 tells us, “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly...” It is a fact of life. If you want friends you have to SHOW YOURSELF FRIENDLY.
• You cannot rush into church, sit back and fold your arms and stare blankly ahead, or begin reading the bulletin, and expect every person in the church to come running over to shake your hand. You have to SHOW YOURSELF FRIENDLY by getting up and speaking to folks and shaking hands with them.
• You can not have friends by sitting home and complaining, “No one from church ever comes to see me, or calls me.” You have to turn the television off, jump into that car and go by and see folks. If you do this, you will soon have so many friends coming by you may wish so many would not come by sometimes.
YOU HAVE TO SHOW YOURSELF FRIENDLY IF YOU EXPECT TO HAVE FRIENDS.
Well, David had been friendly. He had not snubbed people. He had really tried to be Saul’s friend! But Saul had been a “fair-weather friend.” When things did not go the way Saul wanted them to go, he ceased being David’s friend.
When David was facing the storms of life he cried out, verse 4, “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.”
WHAT A TERRIBLE PLACE TO BE IN!
The most miserable people in the world are those who feel they have no friends.
It is a joy to have friends...
• Who call you simply because they want to hear your voice. They are not trying to sell you anything. They are not trying to get you to take their side against someone. They just like visiting with you and being in your presence.
• Who visit you simply because they would rather see you than to be home watching television or going to a ball game.
• To call to check on you because they have heard of some need in your life. Who allow you to make mistakes and who forgive you.
The true friend will not turn away just because of something you do wrong after you have done so many things right.
Oh the joy of having TRUE FRIENDS! Often the most loving thing we can do when a friend is in pain is to try to share the pain. That is, to be there even when we have nothing to offer except our presence, and even when being there is painful to ourselves. For example,
Illus: A man was at the funeral home, standing beside the casket of a loved one who had died. This man’s dearest friend walked up beside him, never said a word, but placed his arms around his shoulder and drew him to him. There was no need to say anything, just being there said it all!
It is a real blessing to have friends who care about your needs and your pain.
Illus: Perhaps you saw this report on television. “Last spring Mr. Alter’s fifth-grade class at Lake Elementary School in Oceanside, California, included fourteen boys who had no hair. Only one, however, had no choice in the matter. Ian O’Gorman, undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma, faced the prospect of having his hair fall out in clumps. So he had his head shaved. But then 13 of his classmates shaved their heads so Ian would not feel out of place.
“If everybody has his head shaved, sometimes people don’t know who’s who,” said 11-year-old Scott Sebelius in an Associated Press story (March 1994). “They don’t know who has cancer, and who has just shaved their head.” Ten-year-old Kyle Hanslik started it all. He talked to some other boys, and before long they all trekked to the barber shop.
“The last thing he would want is to not fit in,” said Kyle. “We just wanted to make him feel better.” Ian’s father, Shawn, choked back tears as he talked about what the boys had done. He said simply, “It’s hard to put words to.” “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:2). --Sherman L. Burford, Fairmont, West Virginia. Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 3.
David was being chased by a Jealous king who wanted to kill him, and in the cave of Adullam, when he was hiding to save his life, he said, again verse 4, “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.” Thank the Lord for our “True friends” who remain friendly during GOOD TIMES and BAD TIMES!
All too often, whether it be true or not, we feel like David felt, “...no man cared for my soul.” But, there is GOOD NEWS!
II. GOD CARES!
Look at verse 5. We read, “I cried unto thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.”
A lot of times it is in life’s CAVE EXPERIENCES that we are taught what the song writer said, “WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS.”
We discover in life’s CAVE EXPERIENCES that Jesus is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
Illus: Sometimes friends, and even family members, will let us down, but NO ONE CAN SAY, “I was going through one of the most trying times of my life and the Lord turned His back on me.”
Look at verses 1-2. David said, “I CRIED UNTO THE LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the Lord did I make MY SUPPLICATION. I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.”
Did you know that it does no good to complain to some people. They just wish you would SHUT UP and go home and get out of their lives.
Illus: These remind me of the story of the man who was drowning and he was hollering, “I can’t swim! I can’t swim!” Finally a man who was trying to sleep on the beach sat up and yelled back, “Shut up! A lot of people can not swim but they do not come to the beach to brag about it!”
David knew who his true Friend was. He had all those problems and HE JUST POURED THEM ALL OUT BEFORE THE LORD! Look at the word “poured.” This is from the Hebrew word, “shaphak,” which means: “To sprawl out, to gush out.”
Illus: Have you ladies ever opened a can of biscuits that just gushed out when you cracked it? A lady came to the pastor and said, “Pastor, I had something very unusual to happen to me this week. I went to the grocery store and was walking across the parking lot and saw an elderly lady with her head laying on the steering wheel. I started to check on her to see if she was all right, but decided to do my shopping and if she was still there when I came out I would check on her. When I came out she was still there so I walked over and tapped on the window and said, ‘Ma’am, are you all right?’ She said, ‘Call 911. I have been shot in the back of my head. My brains are oozing out.’ I was horrified. I looked more closely at the back of her head and saw something white. When I examined it even closer I found it was dough. What had happened was that the lady had bought the refrigerated canned biscuits and one of them exploded in the heat and a wad of dough had hit her in the back of her head.” Happy ending to frightening story.
That biscuit dough had “gushed out.” That was how David made his complaint. His words “gushed out” before God.
Why did God include David’s words in the Bible? Because He is the One Who said, I Peter 5:7, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”
God does not pretend to be a friend until He gets what He wants from you. No. He is your friend and HE CARES FOR YOU! David knew that!
David said, inverses 5-7, “I cried unto thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living. Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.” Look at the word “refuge” in verse 5. This is translated from the Hebrew word “machacheh,” which means: “Shelter, hope, shelter, and trust.” David was saying:
• I am having to flee for my life.
• I have no friends to turn to.
But, I am not trusting in this cave to protect me. Lord, YOU ARE MY REFUGE!
Someone might be saying, “David was hiding in the cave. He was not trusting in the Lord!” It is true that he was hiding in the cave. He realized that God expects His people to use good old-fashioned common sense. Still, David knew God was his “refuge.” God helps us many times, when we use the good sense He has given, to deliver us from troubles.
Conclusion:
I. NO MAN CARES.
II. GOD CARES.
